I think i'll break down recommendations by publisher. Let's start with Marvel Comics.

They have these collections called the Essentials which are cheap pieces of junk that will disintegrate on you, but they're cheap and the best way to get a bunch of old comics together. All my stuff will be collections so there is no problem finding it.

I'm not so into Cape books. My favorite stuff from Marvel is their horror books.

-Essential Man-Thing. He's Marvel's version of Swamp Thing, the existential crisis of being torn between monster and man. his tagline "Whatever knows fear... burns at the touch of the Man-thing!' It's classic pulp stories, the best ones by Roy Thomas who is famous for his Conan stories.

-Essential Marvel Horror. says it all.

-Essential Tomb of Dracula. Featuring vampire hunter Blade.

-Marvel Zombies. Exactly what the name says. It's from Robert Kirkman the guy who does The Walking Dead. It's great when Galactus comes to devour the world and finds that the Avengers have already started dining on each other!

-The End (various collections). Stories killing off all the major superheroes (but this time not bringing them back as zombies).

My favorite hero is Wolverine, so I'll give more of these then the rest.

-Frank Miller's Wolverine. His books are great, but he's become a racist jerk so don't buy any of his stuff if you can't borrow it from somewhere else.

-Hulk: Planet Hulk. Hulk is kicked off the planet and sent to live with aliens.

-Hulk: World War Hulk. Hulk returns with his alien buddies to get revenge on the Earth.

-X-Men: Age of Apocalypse. An alternate universe X-men story.

-Frank Miller's Daredevil.

-The Punisher: Welcome Back Frank. Dillon again and another favorite writer, Garth Ennis.

-Todd McFarlene's Spider Man.

I don't like Fantastic Four and don't know any newish books for the rest of the Avengers, sorry. I guess just pick up the Essentials or Ultimate versions for those guys.

Ultimate's is an alt. universe made to basically restart over all the main series from the beginning because they'd been running for 40 years and 600 issues by that point.

Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2012 8:09 am

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Taral-DLOSMaster

Joined: 23 Nov 2010Posts: 1727Location: Ontario, Canada

Re: Ultimate, there's more to it than that. The Ultimate line was designed to be darker in tone. Death is more common, the politics are there, etc. It's superhero comics in a post-9/11 world.

The Ultimates was one of my favourite books. As is Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk and the Ultimate Galactus Trilogy. And I really enjoyed the Ultimate X-Men books (though I haven't read Ultimatum yet).

I should warn about the Essential books. I love them, but they're not for everyone. They are in black-and-white, designed to keep the costs down. And they haven't aged well (politics, the way people act, etc.) But they are a lot of fun, if you're into that kind of thing. I love the old-style, and so the campy stories are just fun for me But don't pick up Essential Amazing Spider-Man Volume 1 because you "want to start from the beginning." That's dumb. You won't like it. Buy Essential Amazing Spider-Man Volume 1 because you like old-school comics like that.

DC has a similar line, called Showcase Presents. They only go as far back as the Silver Age (1960s), whereas most of their good heroes started well before that (Batman and Superman both started inthe 1930s). So you get "Showcase Presents: Batman Volume 1" that starts with issue hundred-and-something._________________"I'm...from Earth."

As I said I speak from my experience as a non-superhero fan, so it's limited and I tried to offer books that are more eccentric than what you might typically find there, and also self-contained stories.

Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2012 11:54 am

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SidiousThrawnKnight

Joined: 07 Feb 2012Posts: 358Location: USA

Caedus_16 wrote:

Reepicheep wrote:

I feel like someone could vomit on a canvas, say "That's how the world looks to me" and it would be considered fine art.

There's actually an artist who swallows paint, vomits it on a canvas, and sells it for in the tens of thousands. This world's art community has gone to crap.

The visuals for Watchmen were beautiful, and the visuals for Y: The Last Man are similar in style. The Umbrella Academy is a different style, but again I think its one that works really well with the story.

"This World's art community has gone to crap" as an artist I can say that's not fair to the community as a whole. Sure some folks slop anything together and call it art (these people are called modern artists). There are many of us who still paint in the style and traditions of the old masters like Rubens and Rembrandt.

But, back to comics...I've always like THOR._________________"Study art...", said Thrawn.

"Vote for Papa Palpatine".

Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2012 12:38 pm

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Caedus_16Master

Joined: 15 Apr 2008Posts: 4770Location: Korriban

SidiousThrawn wrote:

Caedus_16 wrote:

Reepicheep wrote:

I feel like someone could vomit on a canvas, say "That's how the world looks to me" and it would be considered fine art.

There's actually an artist who swallows paint, vomits it on a canvas, and sells it for in the tens of thousands. This world's art community has gone to crap.

The visuals for Watchmen were beautiful, and the visuals for Y: The Last Man are similar in style. The Umbrella Academy is a different style, but again I think its one that works really well with the story.

"This World's art community has gone to crap" as an artist I can say that's not fair to the community as a whole. Sure some folks slop anything together and call it art (these people are called modern artists). There are many of us who still paint in the style and traditions of the old masters like Rubens and Rembrandt.

But, back to comics...I've always like THOR.

I applaud people who still hold onto classic styles that take real talent. Sadly, they are diminishing in number._________________Perfection is a lifelong pursuit requiring sacrifice. The only way to get it quicker is to sacrifice the most.

Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2012 12:44 pm

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Taral-DLOSMaster

Joined: 23 Nov 2010Posts: 1727Location: Ontario, Canada

@Sidious, Thor was one of the first comics I really got into. I was looking at the B&W Essential books at Chapters, and the only Volume 1 they had was Thor. It collected the old Journey Into Mystery books that he originated in. SO GOOD. I'm reading Volume 2 right now, and it's a lot of fun. Loki, The Absorbing Man, The Destroyer, Hercules, etc. Good times._________________"I'm...from Earth."

I could spend all day reading THOR. Those comics are awesome!!_________________"Study art...", said Thrawn.

"Vote for Papa Palpatine".

Posted: Sat Apr 14, 2012 3:27 pm

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Caedus_16Master

Joined: 15 Apr 2008Posts: 4770Location: Korriban

A new adult comic has hit the shelves in the last month, and I gotta say you some of you with a more twisted side might like it.

Its called The Manhattan Projects and offers an alternate history. Robert Oppenheimer, Richard Feynman, even Einstein are all characters. It is a lot darker than I would have originally guessed, with Oppenheimer leading the pack for terrible secrets in the first issue but Einstein displays that there is something either huge to him or something dangerous and I can't be sure, but issue 4 has been previewed and apparently its all about him so I'm excited. Those of you who are into more "off the beaten path" comics (comics NOT about superheroes) may enjoy this, and I'm excited to have this happening and would love to have other people be excited with me

_________________Perfection is a lifelong pursuit requiring sacrifice. The only way to get it quicker is to sacrifice the most.

Posted: Tue May 29, 2012 7:40 pm

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ReepicheepMaster

Joined: 05 Feb 2008Posts: 6956Location: Sailing into the unknown

Because my library didn't have the early issues of Y: The Last Man, I decided to read some Batman graphic novels instead. I love the movies, but I don't know the story outside of them very much. The first one I picked up was The Killing Joke, because I've heard that it's one of the best. Here's what I thought:

Click here to see the hidden message (It might contain spoilers)

The artwork was really good, especially on the Joker. Delightfully disturbing.

My two gripes (and they are major ones) are:

1. The Joker gets a back story. Remember the movies are the only Batman stories I know well, but one of the things that I loved about the Joker was that he didn't have a back story. He isn't misunderstood or a tragic figure. He's evil, something that Bruce Wayne doesn't know how to deal with. Evil tends to be a dirty word in fiction and it's not hard to see why, but I thought The Dark Knight pulled it off. It had a villain with no motivation (other than to "watch the world burn") and no discernible origin. He had sob stories, yes, but they couldn't all be true. I always assumed that the Joker was mocking the idea of villains always having an event that made them they way they are. In here we get the idea that the Joker does this, because he doesn't remember the event (and, we the reader, now know the event... ugh). The Joker in TDK (or at least my interpretation of him) was bold. An evil character with no motivation or origin can not work. But he does.

2. This is just personal preference and it's no fault of the story, but I didn't like the ending. I wanted Batman to win. The ending pretty much went against everything I stand for so, while I can respect The Killing Joke as a work of art, I can't say I like it.

_________________
Where sky and water meet,
Where the waves grow sweet,
Doubt not, Reepicheep,
To find all you seek,
There is the utter east.

Posted: Tue May 29, 2012 8:52 pm

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Taral-DLOSMaster

Joined: 23 Nov 2010Posts: 1727Location: Ontario, Canada

Dude, you might have missed a line in the book. The backstory they provided was not necessarily correct (and isn't canon).

"...if I'm going to have a past, I prefer it to be multiple choice!"

If you're reading Batman stuff, I recommend the Jeph Loeb/Tim Sale books. Most notably The Long Halloween and its sequel, Dark Victory. There's also Haunted Knight, which is a collection of one-off stories. These aren't canon, but they're good reads. The Long Halloween is the book that inspired The Dark Knight.

They also follow almost immediately from Batman: Year One by Frank Miller, which is really good too. Year One was the story that inspired the movie Batman Begins.

I also recommend The Dark Knight Returns, which was really fun. By Frank Miller; its style reminded me a bit of Alan Moore's Watchmen (indeed, Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns are both considered to represent the transition point from the Bronze Age of Comics to the Modern Age).

I picked up the new big TPB of Batman: Knightfall Vol 1 (the story that introduced Bane and will likely be the basis for The Dark Knight Rises). Can't wait to read it!_________________"I'm...from Earth."

I picked up the new big TPB of Batman: Knightfall Vol 1 (the story that introduced Bane and will likely be the basis for The Dark Knight Rises). Can't wait to read it!

I really want to grab those three volumes. They look soooo good!

Posted: Tue May 29, 2012 11:04 pm

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Caedus_16Master

Joined: 15 Apr 2008Posts: 4770Location: Korriban

@Reep: The ending was perhaps the most brilliant part because of the ambiguity of it and the revelation that they're both pretty much insane for the same reasons, but they reacted different ways._________________Perfection is a lifelong pursuit requiring sacrifice. The only way to get it quicker is to sacrifice the most.

Posted: Wed May 30, 2012 9:54 am

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ReepicheepMaster

Joined: 05 Feb 2008Posts: 6956Location: Sailing into the unknown

Click here to see the hidden message (It might contain spoilers)

Taral-DLOS wrote:

Dude, you might have missed a line in the book. The backstory they provided was not necessarily correct (and isn't canon).

"...if I'm going to have a past, I prefer it to be multiple choice!"

No, I noticed that line. I figured that the flashbacks were being told by the omniscient narrator rather than the Joker's memory. I also thought his origin was rather tame and uninteresting. Compare it to Rorshach's origin. The Joker's origin was easily my least favourite part of the comic.

Caedus_16 wrote:

@Reep: The ending was perhaps the most brilliant part because of the ambiguity of it and the revelation that they're both pretty much insane for the same reasons, but they reacted different ways.

I agree that it was brilliant, but I'm not sure whether I liked it simply because I'm very biased in Batman's favour. I liked the idea that Batman and the Joker have similarities (that aspect was in TDK also), but I wasn't as much of a fan of the Joker's nihilistic ideology winning out. Again, my second point was personal preference and it isn't necessarily a flaw.

It was a very interesting comic, it had a very simple, elegant plot, and I'm certainly glad I read it. I plan on reading some more Batman comics soon.

_________________
Where sky and water meet,
Where the waves grow sweet,
Doubt not, Reepicheep,
To find all you seek,
There is the utter east.

Posted: Wed May 30, 2012 10:00 am

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Caedus_16Master

Joined: 15 Apr 2008Posts: 4770Location: Korriban

@Reep

Click here to see the hidden message (It might contain spoilers)

Ya I get that. I dunno, they kinda stalemated to me. Batman extended the olive branch and Joker declined because of his view. Batman and Joker are the way they are because they're the only ones who "get it" (The nature of reality) and they're the ones who allow themselves to be affected the most drastically. Batman is the idealist, asking Joker for peace so that they might survive it. Joker is the cold realist. Batman's ideals will never truly win out. The comics point out a lot that he is the reason supervillains exist in Gotham, so he is the answer to the problems he is causing. Joker merely exists, and in another graphic novel it was suggested that he may be a new version of sane that is simply dealing with the reality he's discovered the only way that works. Read Arkham Asylum: A Serious House for Serious Earth and you'll get to read the other most amazing Batman comic as well as see some of these points.

_________________Perfection is a lifelong pursuit requiring sacrifice. The only way to get it quicker is to sacrifice the most.

Posted: Wed May 30, 2012 10:06 am

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ReepicheepMaster

Joined: 05 Feb 2008Posts: 6956Location: Sailing into the unknown

Click here to see the hidden message (It might contain spoilers)

Caedus_16 wrote:

I dunno, they kinda stalemated to me. Batman extended the olive branch and Joker declined because of his view. Batman and Joker are the way they are because they're the only ones who "get it" (The nature of reality) and they're the ones who allow themselves to be affected the most drastically. Batman is the idealist, asking Joker for peace so that they might survive it. Joker is the cold realist.

I wanna re-read it now.

I think I'll read it once more before taking it back and then I'll check out either the Arkham one you suggested or one of Taral's suggestions. I'll see what my library has.

_________________
Where sky and water meet,
Where the waves grow sweet,
Doubt not, Reepicheep,
To find all you seek,
There is the utter east.